Sorority Girl’s E-Mail Rant was an e-mail sent by University of Maryland student Rebecca Martinson to her fellow Delta Gamma sorority sisters, in which she berates them for being “boring” and “awkward." The e-mail was subsequently leaked online and reblogged via internet news sites, even inspiring the creation of celebrity tic readings.
Background

On April 18th, 2013, Gawker[1] published the transcript of an email that was forwarded from an anonymous tipster and originally addressed to the University of Maryland chapter of the Delta Gamma sorority (shown below). Written by a senior member of the club, the e-mail scolded sorority sisters’ behavior at recent events, threatening them with violence if they did not improve their social skills with members of the brother fraternity Sigma Nu. Within five days, the article received over 420,000 views and 2,600 comments.

If you just opened this like I told you to, tie yourself down to whatever chair you’re sitting in, because this email is going to be a rough fucking ride.

For those of you that have your heads stuck under rocks, which apparently is the majority of this chapter, we have been FUCKING UP in terms of night time events and general social interactions with Sigma Nu. I’ve been getting texts on texts about people LITERALLY being so fucking AWKWARD and so fucking BORING. If you’re reading this right now and saying to yourself “But oh em gee Julia, I’ve been having so much fun with my sisters this week!”, then punch yourself in the face right now so that I don’t have to fucking find you on campus to do it myself.

Notable Developments
Author’s Response

The same day, Gawker updated the post with a follow-up e-mail sent from the Delta Gamma chapter president, who asked for the website to remove the offending e-mail or the names “Delta Gamma” and “Sigma Nu.”

“My name is [redacted] and I am the current president of Delta Gamma at the University of Maryland. It has been brought to my attention that you recently published an unsavory email that was sent out over my chapter’s list-serve. Is it possible for you to either remove the article or just remove the names “Delta Gamma” and “Sigma Nu” from your article? This email absolutely does not reflect our chapter’s values nor Sigma Nu’s and any assistance you can give us is greatly appreciated."

Identity Revealed

The same day the e-mail was leaked on Gawker, the author of the e-mail was identified as University of Maryland student Rebecca Martinson. Photographs of Martinson were subsequently posted on the Total Frat Move Forums[2] (shown below), where members discussed her attractiveness and speculated about her sexual interests.

In the coming days, screenshots from her now-deleted Twitter[6] feed (shown below) began circulating on various news sites, including Scallywag And Vagabond,[3] The Frisky,[4] Bro Bible[5] and Jezebel.[7]

Dramatic Readings

On April 18th, 2013, the Pophangover YouTube channel uploaded a video in which actress Alison Haislip performs a tic reading of the email (shown below, left), which received over 268,000 views and 600 comments in the next five days. On April 22nd, Funny or Die released a tic reading by actor Michael Shannon (shown below, right), gaining more than 27,000 up votes and 71,000 Facebook likes within the first 24 hours.

Delta Gamma’s Response

On April 22nd, the Delta Gamma sorority president Laurie Petrucce Roselle issued a statement via Facebook[8] announcing that Martinson will be reprimanded for her “inappropriate” and “profanity-laced” e-mail.

We want to make it clear that this letter in no way reflects the values of Delta Gamma as an International Fraternity or our chapter at the University of Maryland. The processes by which Delta Gamma handles member discipline are confidential, but we have a team of women working with the chapter to take all appropriate action including protecting, educating and supporting the chapter members in the aftermath of this event.

Two days later on April 24th, Delta Gamma released a statement on its Facebook page[9] announcing that Martinson has resigned from her post in the aftermath of the e-mail leak.

Delta Gamma has accepted the resignation of one of its members whose email relating to a social event has been widely distributed and publicized through social media and traditional media channels.